…and Other Unlikely Places

Screenwriting from Duluth

“As a guy who runs a blog about the nuts and bolts of screenwriting, I sometimes get frustrated by aspirants who only want to dip their toes in, or believe they should be able to have a thriving film career in Duluth. They don’t want to commit fully to the form or the craft.”John AugustLike banging a chainsaw against a tree

Last week I was in Duluth, Minnesota doing a video shoot and so I Googled “Screenwriting from Duluth” to see what would come up and discovered a post by screenwriter John August called The Duluth Dilemma.The post was written in February of 2009 and August and the 49 comments cover familiar ground of why a screenwriter can and can’t be in Duluth.

Like Democrats and Republicans yelling from both sides of the fence they both make an occasional good point, but somehow logic gets lost in the noise. Please allow me to try to clear the air here. In the very month that John August wrote that post a 30-year-old first time screenwriter walked off the stage at the Kodak Theater in Los Angles with an Academy Award for her Juno screenplay.

Yeah, you know where I’m going because it’s the drum I’ve been beating for almost four years now.

Diablo Cody, a University of Iowa graduate, wrote the Juno screenplay while living in Minneapolis. Granted, it’s a of couple hours south of Duluth—but both are a long way from L.A. So can you be serious about writing a screenplay in Minneapolis? (Or Duluth, or some other unlikely place?) Absolutely. When I last checked that screenplay that Cody wrote in the suburbs of Minneapolis won one more Oscar than John August has won.

But as I’ve said before, for Cody to sustain her career she did move to Los Angeles. Though, when I last checked, she hadn’t written anything better than she cobbled together in her spare time sitting in a Starbucks in Crystal, Minnesota.

Screenwriting is a long shot business. If there is one lesson to learn here it’s that you can increase your odds of a screenwriting career (and be taken more seriously by the John August’s of the world) if you move to Los Angeles, but if you stay home and write a great screenplay you might win an Oscar.

P.S. Magic can happen in Duluth. It’s where a young Bob Dylan saw Buddy Holly in concert and said he felt a strange connection. And a little known fact about Duluth is that, according to Wikipedia, “By the end of the nineteenth century, Duluth was a thriving city. Duluth was home to more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world and had become a favorite summer playground for the rich and famous.” I’m sure there’s enough material for a screenplay or two in that history.

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100 percent of the screenwriters who now have agents at one time didn’t have an agent. 100 percent of screenwriters who are now working at one time weren’t working. 100 percent of the screenwriters who have made money at screenwriting at one time time didn’t made a dime.” Michael Hauge Writing Screenplays that Sells page […]